ListFilter acts as an artificially-intelligent moderator for your mailing list. It screens all messages that are sent to the list, and it automatically approves messages that meet criteria established by you. If any message fails to meet your criteria, the message is forwarded to you. You can then approve or reject the message. Since 95% of all messages are perfectly fine, this will relieve you of a tedious job. ListFilter runs 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Good messages are scanned and approved instantly, and sent back to the mailing list system for distribution. This lets people post messages at any time of day, and takes you out of the loop. You'll have more time to relax and do your real job, while ListFilter carefully scans every word of every message for possible trouble. Based on policies that you establish via a convenient Web interface, ListFilter catches:

accidental or deliberate "leaks" of secret information, passwords, registration codes etc. that you don't want the whole group to know about

duplicate messages

empty messages

Depending on which mailing list system you use, ListFilter can also snip out advertising and shorten excessively-long quoted sections.

ListFilter uses a sophisticated scoring system, that can take into account who is posting, and whether you are likely to be available in the near future to handle rejected messages. Your policy changes take effect immediately, so you can react quickly if a discussion thread starts to get out of control.

You can access up-to-the-minute reports on how each message was scored, allowing you to quickly fine-tune the system to fit your moderation policy. Eventually the system will come close to matching what you would do, if you were doing all the moderation.

Other reports show the "track record" of each person who has posted to the list. This helps you to identify trouble-makers.

Most mailing list systems let you exempt some people from moderation, and you can instantly switch back and forth between manual and ListFilter moderation at any time. Most people use ListFilter 24/7, but some use it only on evenings and weekends, or when they are on vacation.